She’s a Maneater

Today the July issue of The Maneater was published, the website is completely finished with its awesome redesign, and the next issue we produce will be published August 27 — the first week of school.

That realization hit me today. The beginning of sophomore year is right around the corner, and soon I’ll have little wide-eyed Maneaters coming into the office.

I’ve already had a handful of “baby journos” write some really stellar stories for me. A couple of them have already been asking me about how they can apply for a beat writer position and, in one case, “what is involved with eventually becoming an editor?”

Oh my god, they’re all just so cute. I can’t wait to meet them and love them all. The semester can’t come fast enough.

It’s so funny — I remember being in their position last summer. I was so nervous about everything I submitted to Heather and Jack and Jill and Bia. All of my stories were accompanied with “I hope this works! I can change anything that you don’t like,” (implied: “PLEASE LIKE ME I’M TRYING SO HARD THIS IS SO NERVE-WRACKING UGH”). And now I have little babies asking me the same questions I asked old Ed Board. Who’da thunk it?

From the stories that potential Campus Life babies have turned in already, I’m really optimistic about the content the section will produce this year. I’ve had some really great feature stories come in, and I’m hoping that this year Campus Life will be more defined and established than it was last year. (I also hope the baby journos appreciate the gifs I put in my listserv emails, because I put a lot of thought into them).

And after my initial freak out (which still pops up every few days) about Long Reads, I’m really excited to begin the series, too. I have a few ideas that I think will be really cool, the first one already lined up (September 17!), and I’m excited to see what happens (and also a little terrified).

I’m sure there will be times as Campus Life Editor where I will be totally overworked and stressed and burnt out, but I am really so very happy that I found my niche to belong to on campus and that I have my lovely Maneaters. I miss my Maneater family dearly — both this year’s Ed Board and last year’s.

I can’t wait to get back to Columbia and see all of their beautiful faces. I can’t wait to meet all the incoming freshmen. I can’t wait to work.